The big-hitting Enzo Maccarinelli turned on his critics after retaining his WBO cruiserweight title at the Cardiff International Arena. An accomplished performance that brought him a landslide unanimous points victory over the former world champion Wayne Braithwaite proved beyond doubt that he deserves to be ranked as one of the top men in his division, and suggestions in some quarters that the 26-year-old Welshman is one-dimensional had annoyed the normally genial champion.

After judges had returned scores in his favour of 120-107, 119-108 and 119-109, Maccarinelli said: "This is my time now. I will clean up the cruiserweight division and prove that I am the best out there. I think I have proved a lot of people wrong with what I did to Braithwaite.

"Sometimes the critics have said I have got a big left hook and not much more. Well, you know that's not true now. My left hand was good; I was controlling the fight with my jab and hurting him with it. I hurt him with my right, threw body shots and uppercuts, and I showed that I have a solid chin, taking what he gave me because he hit me with some big shots.

"I showed stamina and movement and I showed I have heart. I hurt my right hand early on but I kept going and bossed the fight.

"It's one of my best, most complete performances. Perhaps I could have finished him but that guy hits hard so there was no point taking any unnecessary risks."

Maccarinelli had floored Braithwaite, 31, who is Guyana-born but now fights out of Brooklyn, New York, with a solid straight left followed by a left hook in the fifth round but showed impressive maturity in being content thereafter to build on the advantage he had gained rather than wading into range in pursuit of a knockout, leaving himself open to potentially damaging counterpunches.

Enzo boxed beautifully," said his manager and promoter, Frank Warren. "Braithwaite was a hard, tough man with a big knockout punch. But Enzo took the fight away from him. He damaged his right hand early on, so he couldn't throw the overhand rights he might have wanted, but he still did a real number on him. He can be very proud of his performance. And what a tribute it is to his trainer, Enzo Calzaghe. He has improved him as a fighter since he moved into his gym and made him the best cruiserweight in the world."

Maccarinelli may fight next on November 3 at the Millennium Stadium on the bill topped by Joe Calzaghe's showdown with his rival super-middleweight champion Mikkel Kessler, of Denmark, and Warren may be tempted to attempt to lure the winner of next month's WBC and WBA cruiserweight clash between Jean-Marc Mormeck of France and Britain's David Haye into an attractive cruiserweight title-unification fight.

Another fighter likely to have a place on that Cardiff bill will be Newbridge's Gavin Rees, also Calzaghe-trained, who sprang a major upset as he recorded a unanimous points victory over Souleymane M'Baye of France to claim the WBA light-welterweight title. At 5ft 3in, Rees was dwarfed by the champion and had never previously fought in the 10-stone division but he punished M'Baye's body and sustained a superior workrate.

"From the first bell I outpunched him in every round," said Rees. "I started to tire towards the end but I won the first eight rounds. I knew I had already won the fight so I knew to keep calm. No one expected me to beat him, no one at all."

Rees's victory means Britain now has an unprecedented three world champions in the light-welterweight division, with Bradford's Junior Witter the current holder of the WBC belt and Manchester's Ricky Hatton recognised as the No1 fighter in the division even though he currently holds only the relatively lightly regarded IBO title.

Edinburgh's Alex Arthur came back after a tentative start to stop the awkward Georgian southpaw Koba Gogoladze in the 10th round to win the "interim" WBO super-featherweight title. If the injured champion Joan Guzmán, of the Dominican Republic, does not defend within the next 90 days Arthur will be named champion.

"He [Guzmán] can fight me if he wants," said Arthur. "But he hasn't fought in ages. He's not the real champion and now I want big fights against people like Marco Antonio Barrera and Manny Pacquiao. I'm ready for those guys now."